


Someone to Stay

by jess (jess_m)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Awesome Brunnhilde | Valkyrie (Marvel), Awesome Wanda Maximoff, BAMF Brunnhilde | Valkyrie (Marvel), BAMF Wanda Maximoff, Bruce Banner & Thor Friendship, Bruce Banner Angst, Bruce Banner Has Issues, Bruce Banner Needs a Hug, Canon Divergence - Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Drunk Brunnhilde | Valkyrie (Marvel), F/M, Hulk Needs a Hug, Hurt Wanda Maximoff, Jotunn Loki (Marvel), Loki Posing as Odin, Multi, Steve Rogers & Thor Friendship, Telepathic Wanda Maximoff, Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Wanda Maximoff Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-11-17 15:26:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18101258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jess_m/pseuds/jess
Summary: Wanda Maximoff left with Thor after the Battle of Sokovia instead of staying with the Avengers. She fought Hela and became a Revenger and because of that, everything changed.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so just a very important note here: Wanda's personality is going to change from the person in the movies because she goes with Thor instead of the Avengers. Plus, her powers are going to grow stronger because she has Thor showing her what to do instead of the Avengers fumbling around trying to understand her powers. It won't get as exact as the comics but it'll get a lot closer. I'm a firm believer in the fact that one shift can change absolutely everything and that's going to be the cast here.
> 
> Also! This story is going to span across Thor Ragnarok AND Avengers: Infinity War. The sequel will likely be Endgame after it comes out.

“Come with me,” Thor offered, holding out his hand to the young witch and watching her reaction carefully.

Wanda Maximoff’s eyes momentarily widened as she glanced between Thor’s outstretched hand and his steady gaze. Was he serious? He had just spent the last twenty minutes talking to Tony and Steve about how important the infinity stones were and now he wanted someone as inexperienced with their powers as she was to accompany him?

“You can’t be serious,” Wanda murmured.

“I’ve never been more serious,” Thor assured her with a small smirk. “Finding the infinity stones isn’t going to be easy and I could use someone with your abilities standing by my side and helping me along the way.”

Wanda glanced down and sucked in a shaky breath as she tried to digest everything he was throwing at her. Part of her wanted to argue that she had to stay, but what reason did she have to back it up? 

Did she want to be able to go home sometime? Even if her home hadn’t been destroyed in the battle against Ultron, she highly doubted anybody there would ever want to see her face again.

She didn’t have any parents to run and visit if she started to feel too overwhelmed with the Avengers and she didn’t a brother anymore to stick with.

She had nothing and nobody to keep her rooted to Earth.

Her green eyes flicked up to meet Thor’s blue ones and she took a deep breath to try and calm her frantic nerves. “Could you-,” she shook her head as her anxieties won and her gaze fell down to her hands. The same hands she covered with the sleeves of every shirt she had worn since she left Hydra. The same hands that held the powers that ruled her far more often than she ruled them.

She clenched her fists and brought her eyes back to Thor’s patient gaze. “Could you help me control them?” She wondered, her voice faint, barely above a whisper as though she feared her powers might hear her if she spoke about them too loudly.

Thor’s eyes darted down to her fists and his smile grew softer and somehow even kinder as he remembered when he had just as little control as the young witch. Slowly, he nodded. “Your powers are entirely different from my own, but I may be able to help you learn how to control them if that’s what you wish.”

“I’m tired of feeling like I have no power over them,” Wanda huffed, gradually raising her hand and allowing the gentle red wisps to curl around her fingertips. “Most often I know how to stifle them, to keep them hidden, but when I get emotional they just  _ act _ ,” she shrugged, unsure of a better word for how her powers had reacted after Pietro died.

Thor nodded, gently pushing her hand down before he spoke to her. “I can help you if you want to join me on my hunt for the infinity stones,” he promised her. “Do you want to?” He implored, raising a brow at Wanda.

Wanda finally gathered the courage to meet his eyes and she knew within seconds flat that this was the right thing to do. The Avengers would be completely unprepared to train her, and with nothing keeping her tied to Earth she knew leaving with Thor would be the best idea.

“Yes, I-I want to come with you.”


	2. Surtur's Crown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is going to have a lot of dialogue from Thor Ragnarok since it's going to be sticking as close to canon as possible so keep in mind that anything originally found in Marvel movies or comics is not mine but anything that's not is.

“Now I know what you’re thinking,” Thor proclaimed and Wanda turned to him with a raised brow, genuinely curious what he had to say. “Oh, no! They’re in a cage. How did this happen?” 

Wanda scoffed softly and turned her head to Thor, narrowing her eyes as she tried to follow his line of sight and figure out he was talking to in the steel cage they were both trapped inside.

When she spotted the skeleton looming over them, she was truly torn between laughing and cringing in disgust that they had been lying with a skeleton for hours and Thor was just now noticing it, telling the skeleton their tale and making Wanda worry he might be going a bit loony with the isolation.

“It’s a long story, but basically, I’m a bit of a hero,” Thor explained to the skeleton and Wanda rolled her eyes and snorted. The number of times she had saved him when he couldn’t use his hammer might show otherwise. 

“See, I spent some time on Earth,” he said. “Fought some robots, met Wanda here, saved the planet a couple of times,” he listed. “Then we went searching through the cosmos for some magic, colorful Infinity Stone things.”

Wanda smiled as he got to her favorite part of the story. After all that they had been through Wanda felt a great swell of gratitude towards Thor for thinking of her before he left to hunt down the Infinity Stones. She didn’t know where she would have been if she’d stayed with the Avengers, but she did know that with Thor she managed to gain so much more control over her powers. 

She finally felt comfortable using them without some underlying fear that they could control her more than she controlled them, and better yet she felt like she could risk getting emotional without causing total devastation. 

Without him, she was certain she’d feel far more directionless and uneasy walking through life with her abilities.

“We didn’t find any,” Thor announced and Wanda smirked as she realized he was still recounting their story to the skeleton. “That’s when we came across a path of death and destruction which led us all the way here into this cage, where we met you,” he said, leaning up and beaming at the skeleton making Wanda chuckle.

“We’ve been here for far too long,” Wanda decided with a sigh.

“No kidding,” Thor murmured, glancing behind him as though he were looking out for any sign of a savior. “How much longer do you think we’ll be here?”

“I hope it’s not too long,” Wanda confessed. “I’m starving.”

“What the field of apples didn’t fill you up?” Thor implored with a small frown.

“No, didn’t they all have fruit flies clinging to them?”

Thor frowned as he searched his memory. “I-.”

However, before he could respond, the cage doors beneath them creaked and within seconds the pair of them went tumbling down through the cave as their chains unrolled until, with a sharp tug, they were both stopped.

Wanda groaned as her hair fell over her face and despite her relentless efforts to blow it away, she was left unsuccessful. 

“Lovely,” she deadpanned.

The skeleton fell right between her and Thor just as a deep menacing chuckle grew from just a few spins of their chains away.

“Thor, son of Odin,” the voice hummed.

Wanda turned just enough in her chains to be able to see the face of the person holding them prisoner. Well, there wasn’t so much a face as a much of rocks and lava but there was definitely a human form sitting atop what she assumed was meant to be some sort of throne, even if it was just a stone chair. 

“Surtur!” Thor exclaimed with a large grin plastered on his face. “Son of a bitch, you’re still alive?! And clearly lacking manners, where’s your greeting to Wanda here?”

Wanda smirked and tried her best to give a tiny wave despite her hands being thoroughly wrapped in chains.

“Who is this mortal?” Surtur scoffed.

“Quite a brilliant witch, if I do say,” Thor remarked while Wanda beamed at him. “She’s saved me more times than I can count,” he confessed.

“We saved each other,” Wanda dismissed with a shake of her head. 

“She’s being humble,” Thor chuckled. “She really is gifted, though I sincerely doubt you plucked us from that cage to discuss her abilities so enlighten us, how did my father not kill you like half a million years ago?” He wondered with a small frown.

“I cannot die,” Surtur huffed as though they should have known that. “Not until I fulfill my destiny and lay waste to Asgard.”

“You know it’s funny you should mention that,” Thor remarked. “Because I’ve been having these terrible dreams of late. Asgard up in flames, falling to ruins. And you, Surtur, are at the center of all of them.”

“It’s a bit worse than all of that but he’s probably just skimming to save time,” Wanda informed Surtur.

“Then you have seen Ragnarok, the fall of Asgard,” Surtur hummed in excitement. “The great prophecy of-.”

“Hang on!” Thor cried as his chains spun him away from Surtur’s face. “Hang on,” he chuckled as he tried to rock his chains to turn him faster.

Just as the creaking of his chains grew louder, Wanda’s joined him as she too began to spin away from Surtur and the pair wiggled around trying to see him once again.

“I-We’ll be back around shortly,” Thor assured Surtur.

“He was just about to go into a monologue about this prophecy too, it’s a bit unfortunate isn’t it?” Wanda sighed.

“Yes, I really felt like we were connecting there,” Thor huffed. 

It took a full minute for both her and Thor to be turned back around so they could see Surtur, and once he saw Wanda was within eyesight, Thor took a deep breath and smiled at Surtur.

“Okay, so Ragnarok, tell us about that.”

“Walk us through it,” Wanda requested as she nodded along.

“My time has come,” Surtur said. “When my crown is reunited with the Eternal Flame, I shall be restored to my full might. I will tower over the mountains, and bury my sword deep in Asgard’s-.”

“Oo! Hang on!” Thor called. “Give it a second.”

Surtur rolled his eyes as Thor’s chains began to spin him around once more, with only one difference this time. Wanda was now using her powers on the chains to see if she had the ability to once she had shuffled one of her hands mostly out of Surtur’s chains. 

She was happy to see the red wisps wrapping tightly around Thor’s chains and spinning him as she wanted. 

“I swear, I’m not even moving,” Thor assured Surtur with a small smirk as he knew Wanda was in control at the moment. “It’s just doing this on its own.” Once he spun around, he beamed at Surtur to the creature’s indifference. “Okay, so let me get this straight. You’re going to put your crown into the Eternal Flame and then you’ll suddenly grow as big as a house?” Thor guessed with a small frown.

“I think it was-.”

“A mountain!” Surtur roared before Wanda could even finish her thought.

“That,” Wanda nodded to Surtur.

“The Eternal Flame that Odin keeps locked away on Asgard?” Thor continued to guess as though neither Wanda nor Surtur had interrupted him.

“Odin is not on Asgard,” Surtur announced and Wanda and Thor both shared a look of utter confusion and only slight worry.

Wanda had never met Odin as she and Thor had never stopped at Asgard during their hunt for the Infinity Stones. All she knew were the stories Thor had told her about him. 

He was a great father, but not what he should have been when it came to Thor’s brother Loki. He had many faults but overall he was a great king and a great leader to their people, so great in fact that Thor knew he could never fill his shoes even if he had wanted to. He had realized long ago that he wasn’t meant to be sitting on some throne. He didn’t want the life of a king, he wanted his life as it was and that meant continuing to allow his father to rule though apparently, that wasn’t what was happening on Asgard.

“Your absence has left the throne defenseless,” Surtur proclaimed.

Thor brushed off his concerns about his home for the moment being and carried on trying to understand Surtur’s plans. “Okay, so where is it?” He asked, glancing around as though he might see Surtur’s crown just lying haphazardly somewhere in the cave. “This crown?”

“This is my crown,” Surtur said, pointing to the big arch of rock on top of his head and making Wanda furrow her brows curiously at the “crown”. “The source of my power,” he hummed and Thor seemed as confused as Wanda felt.

“Oh, that’s a  _ crown _ ,” Thor sighed. “I thought it was a big eyebrow.”

Wanda snorted as she began to laugh. “I did too!”

“It’s a crown,” Surtur sniped, not even bothering to yell at the pair anymore when they frustrated him.

Thor and Wanda shared a look, clearly believing it wasn’t a crown and he had just labeled his eyebrow that because he was insecure about it.

“Anyway, it sounds like all we have to do to stop Ragnarok is rip that thing off your head,” Thor stated simply.

“But Ragnarok has already begun,” Surtur hummed as he stood up and began heading towards them, injured but still determined. “You cannot stop it,” he hissed, picking his sword up and dragging it across the stone floors towards them.

However, rather than approach Thor, he approached Wanda and she stared up at him with wide eyes, her heart beating rapidly in her ears.

“You leave her be, Surtur,” Thor grumbled, not ready to watch someone else die because of a mess he mistakenly involved them in.

Surtur smirked as he pulled Wanda up to meet his face burning with lava through the rocks pieced together in a human-esque shape. “I am Asgard’s doom, and so are you,” he informed the witch and her heart dropped into her stomach. “All will suffer, all will  _ burn _ !”

“Ah, that’s intense,” Thor hummed, drawing Surtur’s attention towards him instead of the now shaken Wanda. “To be honest, seeing you grow really big and set fire to a planet would be quite the spectacle. But it looks like I’m going to have to choose option B where I bust out of these chains, knock that tiara off your head, and stash it away in Asgard’s vault.”

“You cannot stop Ragnarok,” Surtur insisted, leering at Thor even though the god of thunder was just beaming away. “Why fight it?” 

“Because that’s what heroes do,” Thor hummed, grinning as he summoned mjolnir, but his smile faltered as he didn’t feel the hammer in his grip but rather heard a distant tumbling of it trying to arrive. “Wait, sorry, er- Wanda a little help? I didn’t time that quite right.”

Wanda smiled softly and shook her head. This was a picturesque image of their time together since they left the Avengers. Every time she got scared of her powers or had a large wave of anxiety furling around what devastation they could bring if she was unable to stifle them, Thor was right there cracking a joke or even just being himself, making her forget all about her nerves.

She knew deep inside her she’d found much of her courage on her own, but she couldn’t deny that a big reason for her growing confidence in her powers was Thor and Thor alone. 

She used her powers on his chains and they unraveled, dropping Thor to the ground just as mjolnir arrived and cut through her chains before soaring into Thor’s hand.

Both she and Thor dropped down to the ground and smirked at Surtur as Wanda allowed her red wisps to glow brightly in the palm of her hand and wrap around her wrists.

“You both have made grave mistakes,” Surtur proclaimed and the pair shared a grin. 

“I make grave mistakes all the time,” Thor dismissed just as the eyes of one of Surtur’s creatures began glowing in the dark. “Everything seems to work out.”

Wanda chuckled softly and shook her head, fighting back reminding him that everything usually works out because she or someone else is there to save him.

Countless smaller creatures began running towards them and Wanda winced as she realized they were covering the walls as well as most of the ground. They were about Thor’s height, very skinny and built entirely of rocks.

“You ready?” Thor implored, raising a brow at Wanda.

“Of course,” Wanda smiled.

Thor grinned at her and together they began fighting the creatures.

Wanda started using her powers to try and knock them down one at a time but they started ganging up on her she used her powers to blast whole sections while Thor sent his mjolnir out on its own to kill most of them as he fought the others with his fists.

Surtur’s large creature growled and pulled on its chains and Wanda spared an anxious glance towards Thor who passed her a single nod.

They had fought enough battles together at this point to know when to cut and run.

Thor leapt into the air and called forth a surge of his powers while Wanda did the same. As he slammed his hammer down onto the cave floor he slaughtered half of Surtur’s creatures while Wanda took out the other half. 

Surtur didn’t even hesitate before turning his sword on the pair and attempting to blast them with his flames, but luckily Wanda caught him in time and used her shields to block her and Thor.

While Wanda was blocking his attack, Thor leapt through the air again and slammed mjolnir right down on Surtur’s skull. 

Once Surtur was distracted trying to hit Thor with his sword, Wanda used her powers on his legs, trying to bring him to his knees. 

Eventually, when he wasn’t making any progress Thor jumped back and leapt onto a small column of rocks. Wanda spotted what he was doing and did the same, using her powers to push her up into the air and help her fly over to his side.

Once they were together they both jumped onto Surtur, blasting him with both their powers and not only killing him but tearing his crown off his head.

“Well, that was easy,” Thor smirked and Wanda laughed as they jumped off Surtur and Thor used their chains to tie Surtur’s crown to his back.

However, their getaway wasn’t going to be as quick and easy as they wished. Wanda winced when she heard distant, inhuman growls rapidly approaching. It appeared the thin creatures Surtur had used to attack them could regenerate.

She wasn’t sure why she had thought of that earlier seeing as they’re on an alien planet and the only thing the creatures were made of was rocks.

“Uh, Thor?” Wanda implored shakily, turning to her friend with a raised brow and hoping he had a plan where she was lacking.

Thor took a deep breath and looked to the sky. “Heimdall, I know it’s been a while but we could really use a fast exit,” he announced and thrust his hammer into the sky.

Nothing happened and Thor frowned.

“Heimdall?” He prompted.

Still nothing.

The large creature Surtur had chained up cried out and Wanda began to panic.

“Thor, he’s not answering and that thing is going to break loose any minute now,” she warned. 

Thor glanced around and took a deep breath, desperate for an exit where there was none.

“Okay, hold on,” Thor instructed.

Wanda wrapped her arm around his abdomen and he pulled her close by the waist before he spun his hammer rapidly and launched it into the air to break through the rocky ceiling and bring them to the planet’s surface.

Once they were safe, Thor thrust his hammer into the air and tried again. “Heimdall, come on,” he groaned.

“What could be happening?” Wanda wondered.

“I don’t know,” Thor confessed. “But if Heimdall isn’t at his post and my father isn’t on Asgard, something is very wrong.”

However, before he could elaborate, the ground beneath their feet began rumbling and Wanda winced.

“Something tells me that thing isn’t going to give up without a fight,” she hummed as her powers glowed brightly in her palms once again.

Several holes burst through the ground before the creature erupted before them. A monstrous dragon-like beast, it didn’t hesitate before opening its mouth and trying to eat them. Wanda kept its jaws from clamping down on them as Thor dropping his mjolnir onto its tongue and simultaneously made the dragon drop down with it.

“Stay,” Thor commanded the beast. He took a deep breath and looked to the sky once more. “Heimdall, we’re running short on options,” he complained. “Heimdall?”

Before Heimdall could answer, the small thin creatures began climbing out of the holes in the ground and Wanda fended them off alone since Thor couldn’t do much but punch them without mjolnir. 

Thor took a deep breath and stepped back. “Come on, I doubt Heimdall’s gonna answer and we need a way off this planet.”

Wanda nodded and he wrapped his arm around her waist before summoning mjolnir and flying through the air once again. 

She used her powers to try and hit as many of the small creatures on the ground as she could as they flew which meant the beast kept only a few inches away from them constantly. 

However, as it opened its mouth to try and eat them, a bright light burst down from the sky and pulled them upwards saving them and taking them straight to Asgard.


	3. The Imposter

They were tossed out of the bridge onto Asgard and if Thor hadn’t kept a firm grip on Wanda’s waist and used mjolnir to slid through the room, she surely would have tumbled onto the ground and been covered in the green blood of the beast like the poor women she saw flee the room in a hurry.

“Girls!” Cried a man standing by the gate was a man with a bald head and armor who looked thoroughly displeased as they left. He too was drenched in the blood of the beast but oddly didn’t seem to mind or be that surprised by it.

“Is that Heimdall?” Wanda asked with a small frown, hoping her confusion was no ill-placed.

“No,” Thor murmured. “No, it’s not,” he said, staring at the strange man with the same level of confusion Wanda felt.

The man, on the other hand, just seemed annoyed at their presence. “Well, well, well. Look who decided to pop in. Oh, and is it any wonder the god of thunder is allowed to bring girls home but when I try it my workplace gets drenched in brains,” he huffed and Wanda and Thor shared a look.

“Who are you?” Thor asked. 

“Don’t you remember?” He frowned. “I’m Skurge. We fought together on Vanaheim.”

Wanda raised a brow at Thor and saw a faint echo of recognition but nothing more, still rather than raise questions about the man’s identity, he shook his head and changed the subject.

“Right,” he murmured. “Where is Heimdall?”

“That traitor,” Skurge scoffed. “Well, no one knows. He’s a fugitive of the throne.”

“Traitor?” Wanda implored. Thor had told her stories of his close friend Heimdall and the title traitor slapped on his name didn’t at all seem right.

“Yeah,” Skurge sighed. “You see, Odin, charged Heimdall with negligence of duty but he disappeared before the trial. Hard to catch a guy who can see everything in the universe,” he chuckled.

“Sure,” Thor dismissed, placing a gentle hand on Wanda’s shoulder and steering her out of the gate room towards Asgard. 

“Hold on, hold on,” Skurge said, running up to the pair. “I’m supposed to announce your arrival.”

Thor used his hammer to take off flying and Wanda used her powers to do the same flying after him while Skurge, with nothing to speed him up, was left to run across the bridge.

Wanda took the time to revel in Asgard’s beauty as she and Thor soared across the planet. It was hard to believe that the man she had been fighting with for so long grew up in beauty such as this while she was left an orphan in war-torn Sokovia.

Still, no matter the appearance Sokovia was home. Its streets had raised her and her brother when they had no parents and she was certain even if Thor had grown up in a similar setting on Asgard he would still hold pride in the place he called home.

It was easy to feel the worlds between the two of them when she looked at where Thor was raised but seeing who had become made her feel like they could be two sides of the same coin.

They both lost their mothers, their brothers and had dealt with loss and war ever since they could remember. Most of all, he understood her powers because growing up he had suffered the same confusion and pain that she dealt with when trying to come to terms with her powers.

Looking at that, she didn’t see all the wealth and luxury he had grown up bathed in because beneath it all he was someone who had struggled just as much as she has.

With that, they landed atop a densely populated building and were immediately met with the sight of a large golden statue of a man in body armor with horns at the very top.

“Wait-,” Wanda breathed as she tried to place the figure.

“What the hell is that?” Thor murmured.

“That didn’t exist before you left?” Wanda frowned.

“No,” Thor scoffed. “And it really shouldn’t exist at all.”

“Well,” Wanda shrugged, unsure of why it might be there. “Hold on,” she said, placing a hand on one of his arms to pull his attention towards where she was looking. “There might be some answers there,” she suggested with a shrug as she pointed towards the large crowd of people.

Thor glanced towards it and nodded solemnly.

Together they headed into the crowd to try and see what everybody was watching when they heard a faint American accent.

“Oh, brother,” the voice groaned in pain.

Thor’s frown deepened and he and Wanda moved through the crowd to see what appeared to be some sort of stage show.

There was a man dressed up like Thor cradling a man dressed up as the individual in the statue while four people stood watching from the sidelines.

Outside the play, at the center of the crowd was an older man in golden orange robes eating grapes and watching in what seemed to be a delight while several women of all ages stood around him.

“You fool, you didn’t listen!” The Thor actor cried. “Lady Sif, get help!”

“Somebody help!” The woman playing a lady called Sif screamed out as she ran off stage.

“I’m gonna take a wild guess and say this isn’t normal for Asgard,” Wanda murmured to Thor who scoffed and shook his head.

“Far from it,” he mumbled.

“I’m sorry for all I’ve done,” the actor playing the man in the statue choked out.

“Shh, it’s alright,” Thor’s actor assured him. “Hold on.”

“I’m sorry I tried to rule Earth.”

“They’d be lucky to have you!” Thor’s actor exclaimed with a grin and Wanda had to bite back laughter as she gazed up at Thor.

“I’m sorry about that thing with the Tesseract,” the statue’s actor said. “I just couldn’t help myself.”

“I know.”

“I’m a trickster,” the statue’s actor reminded him. 

“So mischievous,” Thor’s actor chuckled slightly.

“Yeah,” the statue’s actor smiled solemnly. “Sorry about that time I turned you into a frog.”

Wanda’s eyes widened and she turned to Thor who was wincing and looking everywhere but her.

“What?” Wanda gasped, barely able to hold back laughter.

“It’s-It’s a long story,” Thor mumbled.

“One I hope I get to hear someday,” Wanda hummed, grinning as she turned her attention back to the play.

“It was a wonderful joke,” Thor’s actor insisted as he smiled at his brother with tears streaming down his cheeks.

“‘Twas indeed hilarious,” the man in the orange robes, who she assumed must be Odin, remarked with a chuckle.

“You are the savior of Asgard,” Thor’s actor whispered to the man in the statue.

“Tell my story,” the statue’s actor insisted.

“I will.”

“Build a statue for me.”

“We will build a big statue for you,” Thor’s actor assured the man.

“With my helmet on!” The statue’s actor proclaimed. “With the big bendy horns,” he said, mimicking the horns as he spoke. 

Thor’s actor took a deep breath before speaking once more. “I will tell Father what you did here today.”

“I didn’t do it for him,” Odin whispered.

“I didn’t do it for him,” the statue’s actor repeated before his head fell back and he died.

Immediately after, a choir that Wanda hadn’t even noticed began singing.

“No!” Thor’s actor bellowed and the real Thor looked completely irritated by the display, clearly wondering when it would be over.

A woman with tears in her eyes placed a gentle hand on Thor’s arm, moved by the entire display and Thor just frowned at it while Wanda struggled more and more to cover her snickers.

On the stage, an actor playing Odin entered- narrating the entire scene. “And so Loki died of his wounds, giving his life for ours. He fought back those disgusting elves. He brought peace to the realm.”

Just then a child covered in blue pain stumbled onto the stage. 

“Loki, my boy,” Odin’s actor said as the boy climbed onto a rock by the actor’s side. “‘Twas many moons ago I found you on that frostbitten battlefield. On that day, I did not yet see in you, Asgard’s savior. No. You were merely a little blue baby icicle that melted this old fool’s heart.”

After he said this the entire crowd cheered and Wanda gazed around in amused alarm. 

Odin stood up and clapped for all the actors as they took their bows cheering, “bravo! Bravo! Well done. Bravo.”

“Well, I feel like I know the entire history of Asgard’s royal family now,” Wanda said jokingly and Thor rolled his eyes, searching the crowd as they made their way out for his father. “That’s not really Odin, is it?” She guessed.

“I told you how he treated Loki?” Thor implored and Wanda nodded. “Then I think we both know it isn’t him.”

“Right,” Wanda sighed. “The day isn’t done yet.”

They marched through the crowd until Thor laid his eyes on “Odin” and gave him a gentle nod. “Father,” he greeted the man.

“Oh shit,” she heard “Odin” mutter and chuckled as he passed his wine to one of the women and feigned joy. “Ah, my son, Thor, has returned!” He proclaimed. “Greetings, my boy.”

The crowd gave surprised gasps at Thor’s appearance before they all smiled and clapped for him.

“Interesting play,” Thor remarked. “What’s it called?”

“Uh,  _ The Tragedy of Loki of Asgard _ . The people wanted a way to commemorate him,” “Odin” explained.

“Ah, indeed they should,” Thor agreed. “Oh, I like the statue. A lot better looking than he was when he was alive though,” he shrugged. “A little less weaselly, less greasy maybe.”

“Odin” seemed quite irritated by that and though he tried to dismiss it as a joke, Wanda could see it got under his skin and she smirked as she continued to watch the exchange between Thor and his brother.

“Do you know what this is?” Thor asked, raising Surtur’s crown for Loki to see.

“Oh, the skull of Surtur!” Loki exclaimed. “That’s a formidable weapon.”

“Do me a favor,” he asked of one of the guards, giving the crown to him. “Lock this away in a vault so it doesn’t turn into a giant monster and destroy the whole planet.”

Wanda smiled at Thor until her mind brought back the one memory she’d do anything to forget, Surtur leering in her face and telling her she would be Asgard’s doom. She couldn’t deny there was a part of her still worried he might be right. Sure, they had killed him, but Surtur’s crown was now on Asgard. 

If something happened and that crown was tossed into the Eternal Flame, she might end up playing a part in Thor’s home being destroyed and as someone whose home had been wrecked by battle she was in- she wished that experience on nobody. Especially not someone she cared about. 

“Um, so it’s back to Midgard the pair of you, is it?” Loki implored, standing and walking towards Thor as he vaguely gestured to Wanda.

“Her name is Wanda and I don’t think I’m going anywhere,” Thor sighed, tossing mjolnir haphazardly into the air. “You know, I’ve been having this recurring dream lately. Every night I see Asgard falling into ruins.”

“That’s just a silly dream,” Loki dismissed with a wave of his hand. “Signs of an overactive imagination.”

“Possibly,” Thor nodded. “But then Wanda and I decided to go out there and investigate. And what do we find, but the Nine Realms completely in chaos,” he hummed. “Enemies of Asgard, assembling, plotting our demise all while you,  _ Odin _ , the protector of those Nine Realms, are sitting here in your bathrobe eating grapes.”

Loki seemed entirely anxious and began backing away as Thor marched towards him, the classic threat of a big brother scaring the life out of their younger sibling. 

“Yes, it is best to respect our neighbors’ freedom,” Loki mumbled and Wanda scoffed.

Freedom was one thing, letting them assemble and figure out how to attack you? Completely different.

“Yes, of course,” Thor smiled. “The freedom to be massacred,” he said before tossing mjolnir out right beside Loki’s head and summoning it back quickly.

“Yes, besides I’ve been rather busy myself,” Loki proclaimed, gesturing towards the stage show with all the props and backdrop still set up.

“Watching theater,” Thor nodded.

“Well, board meetings and security council meetings,” Loki listed all the things any ordinary king is supposed to do.

“You’re really gonna make me do it,” Thor hummed, glaring down at his brother.

“Do what?” Loki frowned.

“Wanda stand clear,” Thor instructed and Wanda moved to her left as Thor thrust mjolnir out to the sky and moved to stand behind Loki. “You know that nothing will stop mjolnir as it returns to my hand. Not even your face,” he said before holding his brother’s head in place as Loki began to panic.

“You’ve gone quite mad,” Loki gasped. “You’ll be executed for this!”

“Then I’ll see you on the other side… brother.”

Loki fought it for a good few moments but the closer mjolnir got the more anxious you could see him becoming and with the hammer just a few inches from his face he cried, “alright, I yield!” 

Loki revealed himself and Thor tossed him to the side before mjolnir could hit him while the crowd gasped in horror.

Loki turned back to Thor and tried to smile good-naturedly but before either brother could speak a word, Skurge burst through the crowd desperately gasping for breath.

“Behold!” He cried and Loki snapped his fingers. “Thor Odinson!” He tried before bending over and trying desperately to catch his breath.

“No, no,” Loki shook his head, visibly irritated. “You had one job,” he reminded the man. “Just the one!”

Loki spun back around to face Thor who clearly wasn’t amused by his antics. “Where’s Odin?”

“You just couldn’t stay away, could you?” Loki smirked. “Everything was fine without you but of course you had to come back and bring some new mortal girl with you.”

“Uh, excuse me?” Wanda frowned.

“Where’s Father?” Thor barked, marching up to Loki and making the trickster stumble away in fear. “Did you kill him?”

“You had what you wanted. You had the independence you asked for, some of which you clearly used to your advantage,” Loki reminded him, nodding to Wanda.

“Am I just not here to you?” Wanda frowned, shaking her head aimlessly at Loki.

Thor clenched his jaw and rather than continuing to interrogate Loki, he pressed mjolnir down on his chest and made the trickster cry out in pain.

“Ow, ow, ow, okay! I know exactly where he is,” he grunted and Thor removed mjolnir. 

Loki huffed and rubbed his chest. “He’s on Midgard.”

“Show me,” Thor commanded, grabbing Loki by the shoulder and shoving him back towards the bridge.

“Oh, are we really going back down that whole bridge?” Skurge moaned. “I just-I mean I-.”

Thor glared at him and Skurge winced.

“Never mind, it-it’s fine,” Skurge assured him. “I love walking for ages just to go back to work. It’s great really,” he said, walking with Thor and Loki.

Wanda hurried up to Thor’s side as he kept a firm grip on his brother while scandalized murmurs ran across the Asgardian people.

“So, this is Loki then?” Wanda presumed.

“Yes, my supposed-to-be-dead brother,” Thor snapped, jolting Loki a bit.

“Oh, and who are you?” Loki huffed. “The next mortal girl my brother gets to play with? Get bored of Jane did you?”

“Wait, who’s Jane?” Wanda frowned.

“Jane and I,” Thor hesitated then shook his head. “We broke up, no need to get into it,” he said quickly and Loki’s eyes widened with glee like a child on Christmas morning.

“Did she dump you?” Loki asked, his tone breathless with near joy.

“No, she didn't dump me,” Thor scoffed. “It was a mutual dumping,” he insisted. “She said she needs to take more time towards her work and she didn’t have time to sit around waiting for a relationship with me, and I completely agreed and did not spend two months on Midgard afterward.”

Loki barked out a laugh. “Oh, this is rich!” He exclaimed. “This is-.” He quieted when Thor tightened his grip on his shoulder and Wanda smiled softly at the pair of them before frowning up at Thor.

“Why did you tell me about this?” Wanda wondered. “Was this before we met?”

“About a month before, yes,” Thor nodded. “But no need to get into details,” he sighed. “It’s in the past. Right now we need to get to Midgard.”

“Right, about that,” Wanda frowned. “This trip is just to pick up your father right? You’re not going to drop me back on Earth with the Avengers, are you?”

“No, why would you think that?” Thor asked, shaking his head aimlessly at the young witch. 

“I don’t know,” Wanda shrugged. “I’ve got a semi-decent handle on my powers now and we haven’t found any of the Infinity Stones, I figured you’d stop seeing the point in keeping me around.”

Thor smiled softly. “Never,” he assured her. “You can stay with me as long as you please,” he said and Wanda grinned. 

“Even after what Surtur said?”

“Oh, don’t think twice on that,” Thor scoffed. “It’s highly unlikely Ragnarok will ever happen with him in the vault now and I doubt you would do any harm to Asgard.”

“Sure, but I just keep thinking about what happened after Pietro died and I-.”

“I thought you’d worked past that,” Thor frowned. “You said the nightmares were gone.”

“They are, for the most part, but I’ve only been growing in strength since then, and if something happens-.”

“If something happens, we’ll take care of it,” Thor promised. “I won’t let anything happen to you. As long as you’re with me, you’re under my protection,” he said, smiling softly at her as she beamed up at him.

Wanda let the tension fall from her shoulders as she smiled up and Thor and tried to remind herself that she was silly for worrying. She and Thor had been fighting together for years now. They would be okay.

The moment was broken by a loud groan on Thor’s right side. “As touching as this is, you should know that Father is currently in New York which might be a bit of an issue for me,” Loki reminded them. “Remember the whole Tesseract issue?”

“You’ll be fine,” Thor dismissed with a roll of his eyes. “Now come on,” he said, shoving his brother into the gate room as they arrived. “Skurge, take us to Midgard,” he commanded.

“Will do,” Skurge nodded. He shoved his sword into the mechanism controlling the gate and twisted it, making a blinding light appear and loud wooshing sound flood the room. 

Together, the three of them stepped through the light and headed to Midgard to try and find Odin.

 


End file.
